NFFC Farmer to Farmer Campaign

Farmer to Farmer Campaign on Genetic Engineering

The Farmer to Farmer Campaign on Genetic Engineering (Farmer to Farmer) is a network of 34 farm organizations from throughout the United States that endorsed the Farmer Declaration on Genetic Engineering released in December 1999. Farmer to Farmer seeks to build a farmer driven campaign focused on the risks of genetic engineering in agriculture and to provide a national forum for farmer action on agricultural biotechnology issues.

Farmer to Farmer accomplishes these goals by:

• Publishing educational materials and conducting workshops on the agronomic, economic and legal liabilities that genetic engineering poses for family farmers and rural communities,
• Conducting trainings to develop farmer leaders and spokespersons on genetic engineering, farm policy and trade issues,
• Providing strategy, media, public policy development and fundraising assistance to farm groups organizing grassroots campaigns on genetic engineering issues, and
• Developing collaborations with national and international environmental, consumer and faith-based organizations to support farmer driven campaigns on genetic engineering issues.

Farmer to Farmer is working with farm, environmental and consumer groups on campaigns to:

• Establish strict economic, environmental and public health standards prior to commercialization of genetically engineered wheat,
• Prohibit the commercialization of genetically engineered rice,
• Ban biopharmaceuticals in food crops, and
• Enact policies that require genetically engineered seeds and foods to be labeled and that create industry liability for contamination to farms, food and the environment by genetically engineered crops.

Concentration in the Seed Industry Leads to Less Choice, Higher Prices for U.S. Farmers (12.09.09)

American farmers are feeling the effects of a concentrated seed industry. Seed options are diminishing while prices increase at historic rates.

A new report by the Farmer to Farmer Campaign, Out of hand: Farmers face the consequences of a consolidated seed industry, examines these troubling trends, substantiating the U.S. Department of Justice's investigation into alleged anticompetitive conduct in the seed industry.

For years the biotechnology industry has trumpeted that it will feed the world, promising that its genetically engineered crops will produce higher yields.

That promise has proven to be empty, according to Failure to Yield, a report by UCS expert Doug Gurian-Sherman released in March 2009. Despite 20 years of research and 13 years of commercialization, genetic engineering has failed to significantly increase U.S. crop yields.

Genetic Engineering News

Monsanto, Big Ag has 'Troubling' Control Over Seed Market, Report Finds (12.29.09 - New West)
Few Iowans are aware of the price increases plaguing farmers, or the federal policies and U.S. Supreme Court rulings that have resulted in a handful of large corporations controlling the seed markets. But a new report, issued three months ahead of scheduled discussions in Ankeny on anti-competitiveness within the seed industry, highlights what Iowa farmers have known for some time.

Seed Behemoth Monsanto Stumbles into Antitrust Trouble (12.16.09 - Grist)
Even as it bombards the airwaves and magazine ad pages to tout its commitment to "sustainable agriculture," GMO seed giant Monsanto has been having a rough go on the PR front of late.

Big Ag Forces Farmers to Buy GE Seeds, Report Says (12.15.09 - Iowa Independent)
When mega-corporations like Monsanto dominate the seed industry, farmers and foods can suffer. A new report outlines the battle. The nation's farmers are in the grip of powerful corporations like Monsanto and find it increasingly difficult to plant seeds of their own choosing, giving Big Ag - and genetically engineered crops - a monopoly over the food Americans grow and eat.

U.S. Working Group on the Food Crisis Criticizes Agribusiness-Backed Global Harvest Initative's Failed Ideas to Feed the World (09.22.09) – The September 22 Global Harvest Initiative Symposium on “Agriculture at a Crossroads” relied heavily on panelists who have consistently pushed unproven biotechnologies that have been linked to farmers’ loss of land, suicides and environmental contamination, and “free trade” in agriculture as the solutions to feeding the world.

U.S. Working Group on the Food Crisis Criticizes Clinton/Vilsack Tour of Kenyan Pro-Biotech Institute (08.04.09) - The Working Group believes a new approach to agriculture research is needed instead of the broken status quo that emphasizes biotechnology and industrial agriculture models.

NFFC Signs Onto Trinational Statement Against Monsanto GM Wheat (06.01.09) - In response to a call from industry groups advocating for commercialization of genetically engineered wheat, NFFC signed onto a statement with groups from Canada and Australia reminding Monsanto consumers have already rejected GM wheat. Read the full counter statement here.

U.S. Working Group on the Food Crisis Urges G8 to Reject Failed Green Revolution Policies for Africa (04.16.09) - The U.S. Working Group on the Food Crisis urged Agricultural Ministers at the G8 meeting in Treviso, Italy, to reject the approach of S. 384, the Global Food Security Act. Instead, the G8 should listen to the recommendations of the recent UN/World Bank-backed report recommending more agro-ecological practices as the best way to solve global hunger.

U.S. Working Group on the Food Crisis Criticizes Senate Hearing on Global Food Crisis (03.26.09) - The U.S. Working Group on the Food Crisis expressed deep disappointment with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on "Alleviating Global Hunger: Challenges and Opportunities for U.S. Leadership" held on March 24. The hearing relied primarily on testimonies from industrial agriculture and genetic engineering apologists.

February 2, 2008: New Rules Needed for Future GE rice research? A critique of the USDA's proposed new rules for GE rice oversight (Southwest FARMPRESS)